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  • Enabling arm64 live image builds

    From Emanuele Rocca@21:1/5 to All on Mon Sep 25 13:00:01 2023
    Hi!

    Live images are currently only being built for x86 machines as far as I
    can see on [1] and [2].

    I've tried building them on arm64 too, and everything worked perfectly
    fine. I'm thus wondering whether it would be possible to build official
    images for arm64 as well?

    Here's the commands I've used:

    $ lb config --distribution sid --updates false --bootloaders grub-efi --archive-areas 'main non-free-firmware'
    $ echo task-gnome-desktop > config/package-lists/desktop.list.chroot
    $ sudo lb build

    The resulting image can be tested with qemu on a x86 host.

    For example:

    $ ISO=/var/tmp/live-image-arm64.hybrid.iso
    $ cp /usr/share/AAVMF/AAVMF_VARS.fd /tmp
    $ qemu-system-aarch64 -machine virt -cpu max,pauth-impdef=on -smp `nproc` -m 4G \
    -device qemu-xhci -device usb-kbd -device ramfb -device usb-tablet \
    -drive file=$ISO,format=raw,if=none,id=thumb -device usb-storage,drive=thumb,bootindex=1 \
    -drive file=/usr/share/AAVMF/AAVMF_CODE.fd,if=pflash,readonly=true \
    -drive file=/tmp/AAVMF_VARS.fd,format=raw,if=pflash \
    -netdev user,id=net0 -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=net0

    Click on View -> serial0 to follow the boot process, and switch back to
    ramfb after gdm has started.

    Thanks!
    Emanuele

    [1] https://www.debian.org/CD/live/
    [2] https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current-live/

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  • From Steve McIntyre@21:1/5 to Emanuele Rocca on Mon Sep 25 14:00:01 2023
    Hey Emanuele!

    On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 12:59:46PM +0200, Emanuele Rocca wrote:

    Live images are currently only being built for x86 machines as far as I
    can see on [1] and [2].

    Yup.

    I've tried building them on arm64 too, and everything worked perfectly
    fine. I'm thus wondering whether it would be possible to build official >images for arm64 as well?

    It should be, but may need some extra build setup work. All the
    official installer and live images are built on casulana, our big
    amd64 build machine. We have some infra for doing builds in qemu VMs
    if needed, but I suspect that's going to be very slow. Meh, we can
    work our a solution for that at some point

    Here's the commands I've used:

    $ lb config --distribution sid --updates false --bootloaders grub-efi --archive-areas 'main non-free-firmware'
    $ echo task-gnome-desktop > config/package-lists/desktop.list.chroot
    $ sudo lb build

    The resulting image can be tested with qemu on a x86 host.

    For example:

    $ ISO=/var/tmp/live-image-arm64.hybrid.iso
    $ cp /usr/share/AAVMF/AAVMF_VARS.fd /tmp
    $ qemu-system-aarch64 -machine virt -cpu max,pauth-impdef=on -smp `nproc` -m 4G \
    -device qemu-xhci -device usb-kbd -device ramfb -device usb-tablet \
    -drive file=$ISO,format=raw,if=none,id=thumb -device usb-storage,drive=thumb,bootindex=1 \
    -drive file=/usr/share/AAVMF/AAVMF_CODE.fd,if=pflash,readonly=true \ -drive file=/tmp/AAVMF_VARS.fd,format=raw,if=pflash \
    -netdev user,id=net0 -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=net0

    Click on View -> serial0 to follow the boot process, and switch back to
    ramfb after gdm has started.

    OK. However, do we expect the image to be usable on any real machines
    as-is?

    --
    Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. steve@einval.com Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.

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  • From Emanuele Rocca@21:1/5 to Steve McIntyre on Mon Sep 25 16:20:01 2023
    Hi Steve!

    On 2023-09-25 12:58, Steve McIntyre wrote:
    However, do we expect the image to be usable on any real machines
    as-is?

    Ah yes, reality. :-)

    I've tested a live image on my RPi 3 B+ with Tianocore firmware and it
    works well (lxde, gnome takes too long to start and I suspect 1G of
    total memory is really not enough for it these days!)

    Currently I'm trying to get the right combo of modules in the initrd to
    get it booting on the X13s as well.

    I suspect most SystemReady certified systems should work too, but I
    haven't tried.

    Emanuele

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